X-Rays Made with Scotch Tape

October 23, 2008

X-Rays Made with Scotch Tape

When you
bite down on wintergreen-flavored LifeSavers candies in the dark, they glow. The
production of light by some materials when under friction or pressure, a
phenomenon called triboluminescence, has been known for centuries, mostly as a
novelty. Now researchers have shown that rapidly unwinding a roll of Scotch
tape inside a vacuum generates not only visible light but also enough x-rays to
image a human finger. Led by physicist Seth Putterman
at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the researchers are now
developing what they hope will be a cheap, simple source of x-rays for clinical
imaging.

According to
the UCLA work, published in the journal Nature this week, unpeeling Scotch
tape at a speed of three centimeters per second produces large numbers of x-rays.
However, Carlos Camara, a postdoc in Putterman’s lab, says that there’s no need
to worry about exposure while wrapping your holiday gifts: the high-energy
radiation is only produced when the tape is peeled under vacuum conditions.

Below, you
can watch Camara, Putterman, and UCLA postdoc Juan Escobar demonstrate the
Scotch-tape imaging technique, capturing a picture of Escobar’s finger on a
dental x-ray film. The images don’t have the same quality as clinical x-ray
images: “They’re taken with Scotch tape, so there’s room for improvement,” says
Camara.

The UCLA
researchers used the Scotch tape to prove that triboluminescence can be
harnessed for x-ray imaging. Their ultimate imaging device, Camara predicts,
won’t use the adhesive. Having applied for several patents, the UCLA
researchers are not yet ready to divulge just what triboluminescent material
they’ll use. Perhaps Wint-O-Green mints?